Prostate cancer deaths fall by a fifth in 20 years, says Cancer Research UK

Prostate cancer is second most common cause of cancer death among men, but progress has been made in treatmentDeath rates from prostate cancer have fallen by a fifth in the last two decades, according to Cancer Research UK.Prostate cancer is the second most common cause of cancer death among men and the fourth overall. But, the charity says, considerable progress has been made in life-saving treatment.Better treatment, more widespread use of hormone therapy, radical surgery and radiotherapy have all played a part in the drop in death rate.In the early 1990s, there were around 30 deaths per 100,000 men in the population, but new figures from CRUK show that has dropped to around 24 per 100,000.In actual numbers, deaths have gone up over that period, from 9,500 a year to 10,800 today. However, that is because men are generally living longer. Three-quarters of prostate cancer cases are diagnosed in men aged over 65.Some cases that could have been fatal are diagnosed earlier through the use of the PSA test – but this is a blunt instrument which does not differentiate between those cancers that will kill and those that will do no harm in the man's lifetime.Around 41,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer every year. CRUK says that while the drop in the death rate is good news, more progress is needed."This new report shows we've come a long way in improving the treatment of prostate cancer in the last couple of decades and improvements in how we treat prostate cancer have bee...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: The Guardian News Health Medical research Society Cancer UK news Prostate cancer Source Type: news